Piston groove cleaner and ring compressor



Aug. 18, 1931. M. L DECKER ,3

PISTON GROOVE CLEANER AND RING COMPRESSOR Filed April 22. 1929 five/#02; fir??? .ZJ. Decker Patented Aug. 18, 1931 1 r UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MARTIN L. DECKER, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI PISTON GROOVE CLEANER AND B-IN COMPRESSOR Application filed. April 22, 1929. Serial No. 357,110.

This invention relates to tools operating in portion made of sufficient internal diameter conjunction with the piston and cylinder of to span a piston and adapted to be reduced internal combustion motors, and has for its by drawing the arms toward each other, to object the novel means for removing the substantially fit the piston. With this con- 5 carbon from the piston ring grooves and also struction the body portion may be adjusted 55 to serve as a ring compressor to facilitate to fit pistons of different sizes within certain the assembling of the piston and piston rings limits. Furthermore, the body portion is enin the cylinder. tirely free from holes or notches and there- A further object of the present invention fore will flex uniformly throughout its enis the provision of a tool having a substantire length, thereby maintaining a substan- 60 tially circular resilient body portion and two tially circular form at all compressed posioutwardly extending arms, one of which is tions. provided with a plurality of bits which are Bits 17 and 18 are mounted on the inner adapted to be adjusted into and out of the surface of for rotatable and longitudinal 15 confines of said circular body portion. slidable'movement by means of bolt 19 pass- Another object of this invention is to proi'ng through longitudinally disposed slots 20 duce a simple, inexpensive and handy tool and 21 formed in 17 and 18 respectively, then that is adjustable to pistons of different sizes through hole 22 formed in arm 15. Bolt 19 and one that will effect results without the is threaded and providedwith a thumb nut 20 expenditure of unnecessary time. 23 by means of which the bits may be secure- '10 lVith the foregoing and other objects in ly clamped in a fixed position. view, reference will now be made to the Bit 17 is shown with a cutting blade 24 accompanying drawings in which the preat each end thereof,while bit 18 has acutting ferred form of the invention is shown. blade 25 at one endionly. Each cutting blade 25 Figure 1 is a perspective view of a tool may be made of a different width, as shown,

embodying this invention; to fit ring grooves of different sizes.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a piston, partly Referring to Fig.2, it will be noted that broken away, With the tool positioned there the bit 17 is positioned on the arm 15 so on and with the bit engaging the piston ring that the blade 24 projects into'the inscribed 3O groove. Said tool is partly in section; circle of the body member and contacts all Fig. 3 is a side elevation of Fig. 2 with sides of the groove llso that, as the tool parts broken away; is rotated about the piston, all foreign sub-' Fig. 4: is a plan view of the piston partly stances will be removed from the walls of the broken away and with the tool in position, groove. 'Should it be desired to clean a narwith the bits retracted, compressing a piston rower groove, thumb nut 23 is loosened and ring into the piston groove. thedesiredcutter positioned so as to engage Like reference characters designate simithe groove and the thumb nut again tightlar parts throughout the several views and ened. c the numeral 10 denotes a piston of the con- In Fig. 4 the bits are shown positioned outventional type having piston ring grooves 11. side the confines of body member 14 so that The piston ring 12 is of the ordinary split the tool may be used to compress the piston type, which should be fitted into a groove that ring 12 as the piston is being inserted into the is free from carbon or any other foreign subcylinder. This operation-is accomplished by stance. gripping the ring with the body portion of 45 The tool embodying the invention comthe tool, with a portion of the ring extending prises a substantially circular body portion below said body portion. 'When the ring is 14 having spaced apart arms 15 and 16 concompressed the portion of the ring extendingv stituting a handle by means of which the tool below the tool is inserted in the cylinder, then is operated. The tool is preferably made of the tool may be removed and the entire ring resilient ribbon stock with the circular body pressed intothe cylinder.

It is important to note that the width of the bits are no wider than the arms so that they do not protrude therebeyond to prevent the lower plane of the tool being moved down into the plane of the upper end of the cylinder. In other words all parts of the tool lie Wholly within parallel planes determined by the opposite edges respectively of the body member. With thisform of tool either side thereof may be used next to the cylinder when compressing the rings.

The bits are so positioned on the arm 15 that they also prevent undue flexing thereof when the arms are forced together against the action of spring tension of the body portion. VVVithout this reinforcement, arm 1.5 would tend to flex, more adjacent the hole22. Any desired number of bits may be provided, also bits may be placed on either or both arms.

I do not wish to limit this invention to the structure shown and described since many modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the appended claims.

VWhat I claim is: v i

1. A tool of the character described comprising a resilient, curved body member of substantially circular form, spaced apart arms extending outwardly from opposite e2;- tremities respectively. of said body member, a-bit carried by one of said arms and means attaching said bit to'the arm permitting rotatable and longitudinal adjustment of said bit.

2. A tool of the character described comprising a resilient, curved body member of substantially circular form, spaced apart armsextending outwardly from opposite extremities respectively ofsaid body member, and a bit carried by one of said arms having a longitudinal slot therein, a bolt carried by the arm passing fshru said slot and means associated with the bolt to tighten the same.

3. A tool ofthe character-described comprising a resilient, curved body member of substantially circular form, spaced apart arms extending outwardly from opposite extremities respectively of said bodymember, and a radially adjustable bit-carried by one of said arms, said bit lying in a plane parallel with the arm and slidably secured thereto for longitudinal movement. 1 v

4. A tool of the character described comprisin a resilient, curved body member of substantially circular form, spaced apart arms extending outwardly from opposite eX- tremities respectively'ofsaid body member, and abit having a blade at each of its opposite ends, rotatably mounted intermediate its endsfwhereby either of the blades may be presented to the work.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto aifix my signature. 1

MARTIN L. DECKER. 

